A proposal to subcontract out food service workers at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC was recently defeated by 1199SEIU members. Medstar, the operator of the hospital, told workers that it intended to subcontract the entire dietary department to the operator that was already managing part of the area.

But the members came together to oppose the plan, and voiced their concerns to management about plan and the proposed subcontractor. Within just three days, workers received a letter from management saying that the subcontracting deal was off and that they were going to refocus efforts to improve the kitchen. Read more at the 1199SEIU News Center.

Collective bargaining on behalf of some 140,000 hospital and nursing home workers is beginning this month in New York City. Representing 1199SEIU will be an elected Negotiating Committee of some 500 rank-and-file healthcare workers. They will be conducting parallel talks with representatives of the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes and the Greater New York association of nursing homes.

The nursing home negotiations are set to begin today, May 8; the League talks will open on May 13. Union Negotiating Committee members from "Me Too" institutions--those that model their contracts on the League's but don't belong to it--will attend the League negotiations. The goal of the joint decision to reopen the contract is to find ways to stabilize the pension fund and preserve members' pension benefits.

For more information, visit 1199SEIU's news center.

On April 17, SEIU UHW members at Alameda Hospital in Oakland ratified a new three-year contract, which is retroactive to April 2008 and covers nearly 130 workers. The contract includes across-the-board pay increases of 18 percent over three years--the highest in the hospital's history.

"This drive at Alameda Hospital was a true demonstration of member-driven negotiation. We stayed committed and united against all distractions," said Rex Dizon, a surgical porter, union steward, and bargaining team member at Alameda. Read the complete Victory Bulletin (PDF) for more details.

More than 800 healthcare workers at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, the largest medical center in the Caritas Christi Health Care chain, voted last Thursday to unite together with thousands of healthcare workers in 1199SEIU.

"This is a time of great challenges and unprecedented opportunities," said 1199SEIU President George Gresham. "Now that St. Elizabeth's workers have a union voice, we can all work together to defend healthcare funding, expand access, and make life better for the caregivers at St Elizabeth's and their families."

Over the past 35 years, workers have attempted to form a union at St. Elizabeth's at least three different times, to no avail. Under new leadership, Caritas Christi Health Care reached an historic accord in January 2009 with 1199SEIU and the Area Trades Council, which established a code of conduct under which workers would be free to make their own decisions on whether to join together as a union under fair secret ballot voting conditions.

"We are overjoyed and thrilled. People were crying with joy in the halls Wednesday night," said St. Elizabeth's PCA Sonia Marshall, "We believe in the mission of St. Elizabeth's, and we're excited about working together to make our hospital the best that it can be for our patients and also for hospital workers and our families. We look forward to the day when all of our sisters and brothers across Boston are able to have free and fair union elections." Workers at St. Elizabeth's have pledged to help organize healthcare workers at other Massachusetts hospitals, including other Caritas Christi facilities, where union election campaigns are expected to launch in the near future.

Read more at www.StElizabethsWorkersTogether.org

SEIU and the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) today announced the signing of a transformative cooperation agreement.

The two unions will work together to organize hospital workers throughout the country who don't yet have a union voice, with CNA/NNOC as the leading voice for RNs, and SEIU as the leading voice for all other hospital workers.

With the opportunity to win the Employee Free Choice Act and healthcare reform just around the corner, both SEIU and CNA/NNOC recognized that their energy and resources would be better spent on uniting all healthcare workers -- instead of focusing on the issues that divide them. Although the two unions have not always seen eye-to-eye in the past, this new agreement puts an end to past conflicts and commits both unions to working together on issues that are most important to health care workers: bringing the power of collective bargaining to all health care workers and advocating for better health care jobs, staffing, and patient care. "It's much more than a truce," SEIU president Andy Stern told AP. "It's really trying to establish a partnership at a moment of profound change in our country."

As part of this agreement, neither union will interfere with the other's organizing campaigns or internal affairs--and will collaborate on future organizing in some of the nation's largest hospital systems. Together, SEIU and CNA/NNOC will create a new joint RN organization in Florida to represent current and future RNs of both unions in that state. In all other states, SEIU will continue to represent its current RN members in bargaining.

Given the challenges facing health care workers today, bringing together the strength of the nation's largest health care union and largest RN union to work towards increased union representation for healthcare workers will hugely assist efforts to enact genuine healthcare reform nationally and for measures that allow states to adopt single-payer health care systems. "Those who recognize our shared value of making sure registered nurses and other health care workers have not only a say but a critical role in helping reshape a failed system into something that actually helps people know that this is the right step to help us meet the challenge and the call of this moment," said Stern.

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann gave the Motion Picture Television Fund's president and chief executive David Tillman the title of the "World's Worse" person last night, for closing the retirement home for film-industry employees for no good reason.

Three hundred SEIU UHW members provide care at the acute care hospital and nursing home facilities under threat of closure, which would cause the eviction of over 120 of its oldest, weakest, most needy and disabled residents by the end of the year. So much for the Motion Picture and Television Fund's promise of "unwavering commitment" to the entertainment industry.

MPTF says this is necessary because the long term care facilities in question have run $10 million operating deficits for the past four years. However, public records show a profit margin of approximately 12% for 2006-7 with a 9.5% increase in net assets in 2007 alone. "Everybody would be farmed out to various nursing homes because the Fund says it's losing $10 million dollars a year and is rapidly running out of money," commented show host Keith Olbermann. "Except that it's latest financial statements from last November indicated no losses... the fund wants to instead open a condo-like development," he continued.

As usual, Olbermann gives a great summary of the issue and what is at stake. Watch here:

SEIU members have protested the possible closures, holding a vigil last Wednesday with more than 150 UHW members, resident family members, actors and clergy from the Motion Picture and Television Fund long term care facility in attendance.

"The fight to keep this residence open and preserve these jobs is a fight for morality over greed and for compassion over cruelty," Melanie Wilson told the crowd, underscoring a moving report on ongoing negotiations by worker Myra Torres. Melanie is the daughter of Charmin's "Mr. Whipple" ad fame, who called the facility home for years.

Watch the NBC Los Angeles report on the protest.

1199SEIU, the Area Trades Council and Caritas Christi Health Care, the largest community based health system in Massachusetts,yesterday announced a historic and groundbreaking new accord ensuring fair union voting conditions for the system's employees when they are deciding whether to form unions. Read more about the accord in yesterday's Boston Globe.

"We are thrilled that the new leadership of Caritas has affirmed the right of hospital workers to make the decision for ourselves on whether to join together as a union," said St. Elizabeth's Medical Center employee Sonia Marshall, "As Caritas employees, we believe in the mission of our hospitals, and this decision reaffirms that our labor and our voice are valued and respected. In the end, that's what's best for patients, too."

"Today's groundbreaking agreement is good for health care, good for workers and good for hospitals," said Senator Edward M. Kennedy in a statement shared with Caritas workers yesterday. "This partnership establishes a firm foundation for future progress that will benefit both the hardworking people in our health care industry and the people of Massachusetts."

Representing a major breakthrough for labor relations within the state's health industry and across the region, the move by Caritas Christi, 1199SEIU, and the Area Trades Council embodies a new level of prospective cooperation designed to bring about the next generation of value and quality to health care.

"This forward-thinking accord will give workers a free choice about uniting to advocate not just for their patients and themselves, but also for the long-term sustainability of their hospitals and the noble mission of Caritas Christi," said 1199SEIU President George Gresham.

This historic accord of hospital workers also received the support of Senators Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry and Representatives Barney Frank, Jim McGovern, Mike Capuano, Stephen Lynch, and Niki Tsongas of the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation. They issued a statement, saying collectively:

"As elected leaders representing the people of Massachusetts, we express our strong support for the accords reached by Caritas Christi Health Care, the Area Trades Council and Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union. These accords will help launch a new direction for health care and labor relations in the Commonwealth."

Read the entire statement here.

SEIU Healthcare Minnesota hospital workers are uniting and taking a stand for their future. More than 200 members who work at Regina Medical Center begin a 2-day strike on Monday in the face of a proposed 50 percent cut to their pension and an increase in to overall healthcare costs.

The hospital workers walked picket lines and rallied outside Regina Medical Center in Hastings on Monday and Tuesday, with slogans on their signs such as, "All we want for Xmas is my pension saved," and "Keep our future secure."

 The current three-year contract expired at the end of October and contract talks are stalled with no sessions scheduled.

At a noon rally Monday, the strikers were joined by elected officials and members of other unions, including the Minnesota Nurses Association and Teamsters.

"With our country and our state facing difficult economic times, now is precisely the time for us to ensure that working families across Minnesota can afford to go to the doctor and can afford to retire with dignity," said Assistant Senate Majority Leader Tarryl Clark to Workday Minnesota.

"And to do that, employers need to keep their promises. I stand with striking Regina healthcare workers and encourage Regina to come back to the table so these workers can return to their patients. We need to find a different way to provide cost-effective care other than cutting pensions."

The union represents more than 14,000 health care workers across the state, including nursing assistants, physical therapy aides, x-ray aides, housekeepers, dietary workers, operating room aides, patient care technicians and other caregivers.

SEIU Healthcare Minnesota hospital workers are uniting and taking a stand for their future. More than 200 members who work at Regina Medical Center begin a 2-day strike today in the face of a proposed 50 percent cut to their pension and an increase in overall healthcare costs. "I'm sick to my stomach that our community hospital has joined the wave of employers breaking promises to loyal employees," said striking cook Jesse Nie. "Everyone I know is tired of the bailouts and broken promises. It's time we defend our future before it's taken away from all of us."

Despite these tough economic times, SEIU members are standing strong, and standing up for Minnesota's working families. "We want to retire with dignity and security," says SEIU Healthcare Minnesota steward Jan Salo in today's Minneapolis Star-Tribune. "Working people have earned retirement security," writes SEIU Healthcare MN member and dietary aide Sharon Braun in a letter to the editor on behalf of the caregivers at Regina Medical Center.

The efforts of the striking SEIU workers at Regina Hospital to protect their hard-earned pension have earned the support of the 20,000-member Minnesota Nurses Association, the leading organization for registered nurses in the Midwest. In a demonstration of solidarity, the nurses of MNA joined in a rally with the workers today. More details to come.

Free & Fair Elections = Quality Jobs, Quality Care

Hospital workers across Boston are calling for free and fair union elections so they can have a voice in protecting patient care and improving jobs for working families.

In an open letter to Massachusetts hospital CEOs last week November , prominent Boston physicians voiced their support for the right of hospital workers to participate in free and fair union elections to address their lack of healthcare coverage and the absence of basic workplace protections in many area facilities. The letter was published this week in the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald and the Boston Metro.

"We believe that addressing these issues together will improve patient care while addressing the needs of hospital employees," wrote the physicians. The group expressed concern over what they called "a long history of intimidating and coercing hospital workers" standing in the way of free and fair union elections.

The letter continued, "We invite our colleagues to add their names to this letter calling on hospital administrators to do the right thing for workers and for our patients by signing a Code of Conduct respecting the right of employees to free and fair union elections."

» View The Letter In Its Entirety

Learn more about Free and Fair Union Elections and 1199SEIU.